I saw that William Post, widely recognized as the creator of Pop-Tarts, died recently at the ripe old age of 96. According to his obituary in Newsweek, in 1964 he was asked by the Kellogg’s Company to create a new product that could be made in a toaster. Within a few months he and his team came up with Pop-Tarts . . . and the kid breakfast world would never be the same.
Pop-Tarts were a staple in our household from the point Mom first brought a box home from the grocery store, which was probably shortly after they were introduced. (Our household tended to be a first mover when it came to new breakfast food options.) I liked the original unfrosted version–especially the strawberry variety, which the Newsweek article says was the original flavor–but my Pop-Tarts consumption really took off later, when frosted Pop-Tarts hit the market.
My favorite was the frosted blueberry Pop-Tarts. They came in a foil packet containing two of those rectangular pastry delights. I actually preferred them right out of the packet, without using the toaster. The delectable goodies had a hard icing crust that crunched and cracked when you took a bite, which provided a nice textural element to the whole frosted Pop-Tart experience. If you put them in the toaster, in contrast, the icing melted a bit, and you lost that. (You also risked taking a bite of superheated filling.) The stiff white icing coating was an excellent contrast to the rich, dark blueberry filling. Strawberry frosted Pop-Tarts were good, but a packet of two blueberry Pop-Tarts with a glass of cold milk made for a perfect post-high school snack.
Blueberry frosted Pop-Tarts entered the “forbidden foods” category, along with Frosted Flakes and Cap’n Crunch, when an adult metabolism made me start paying attention to my calorie intake, but the memories of the first bites of them live on. Thank you for the memories, Mr. Post!
Webner House 